The present invention relates generally to billiard accessories and more particularly to a billiard accessory combination and package construction.
Various equipment and accessories are generally necessary in order to play pool or pocket billiards. Among these items are a cue ball, billiard chalk, which is used to promote friction when striking the cue ball, a billiard table brush or other felt-cleaning tool to remove debris from the felt-lined billiard table surface, and a billiard ball rack to initially place billiard balls in a proper orientation to be struck by the cue ball during the break.
It is often desirable for owners of billiard tables, or players who enjoy playing these games, to be able to purchase several accessories used in these games at the same time. It is also desirable from a marketing perspective to offer accessories which are unique as compared to the standardized equipment and to offer such accessories that are attractive to the user. It would also be advantageous to consumers to have the packaging of such equipment display the accessories and equipment in such a manner that they are not only highly visible, but that any popular or attractive logos printed on the equipment be featured at the point of purchase.
Additionally, billiards is oftentimes played at establishments where sports and sports teams are quite popular and billiard players are generally sporting enthusiasts. It would be advantageous therefore, to have popular and recognizable sports-related logos on the billiard equipment and accessories used by the patrons of these establishments. To the owners of such establishments, a package that includes billiard accessories which bear the mark of local sports teams, for example, would be highly desired.
While structures combining a rack and billiard balls are well known, such structures are generally used for storing an entire rack of billiard balls and are not constructed for the purpose of displaying other billiard accessories. An example of such a structure is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,051, issued to Lowman, which discloses a billiard ball and billiard ball rack storage case.
Another example of such a structure is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,773, issued to Haber, which discloses a combination package and billiard ball rack for billiard balls. However, this structure is used for a full rack of billiard balls and the structure itself is used as a billiard ball rack. The package is used for packaging billiard balls and is not capable of displaying or accommodating the various accessories associated with the game.
While the prior art discloses various billiard ball storage racks, there exists a need for a simple billiard accessories package which effectively displays its contents and provides accessories which are an attractive alternative to traditional billiard accessories. A further need exists for billiard accessories having an identifying indicia or logo thereon and a package configuration that clearly displays such indicia to a potential purchaser. Such is not disclosed by the prior art.